Stop Co-Opting Black Female Oppression to Elevate 'Transwomen' Athletes.
Within the past week, a cultural uproar has emerged around the fight between Olympic boxers, Imane Khelif and Angela Carini, who competed against each other in the female division.
Less than one minute into their first match, Angela chose to end the fight because Imane’s blows to her body were too powerful. She knew from the jump that this would be an unfair match, and that she would be risking her safety and dignity for a fight that she was only bound to lose. Angela took a devastating loss, and Imane was instantly crowned the victor.
Since then, I’ve witnessed several conversations floating around online about how Imane Khelif was born female, has a vagina, and doesn’t identify as trans, so “she” is a woman. Therefore, Angela and her supporters are just being sore losers.
Angela simply didn’t train hard enough, and that was the reason why she lost and cried about it on her knees in front of everybody like a “little bitch”.
What Imane’s ‘woke’ supporters conveniently ignored and omitted is the fact that Imane is, in fact, a genetic male with XY chromosomes, and is therefore blessed with a natural physical advantage over female athletes, just like any other man.
The issue here is that Imane was never meant to compete against Angela in the first place, because he is not a woman. He is an intersex man.
Call it what you like, the match was unfair.
But what is really upsetting me is how many of these same people have begun to claim that Imane Khelif is only thought of as male due to racism.
Apparently, they are using the argument that Imane is only viewed as male because he does not fit the Eurocentric beauty standard that women are held to.
Suddenly, it’s “Oh…so a woman can’t be muscular? A woman has to be white?”
Following in the legacy of other “Women of Color” athletes who have been speculated to be male due to their natural physical features, muscular build, and flawless performance, Imane Khelif is touted as yet another victim of ‘white supremacist patriarchy’.
They just can’t let us “Women of Color” be great, can they?
First of all, let’s be Crystal Clear: The media’s rampant masculinization of “women of color” athletes happens exclusively to black women.
The most prominent examples of this phenomenon are Venus and Serena Williams. These sisters went through intense scrutiny over their biological sex in the media because of their athletic build and Afrocentric features, which, through a racist and misogynist lens, are perceived as unfeminine.
The Williams’ Sisters were called monkeys, publicly humiliated, and consistently compared to non-human animals, because of their distinctly African features.
So the reason why this argument about Imane Khelif being viewed as male due to “racism and sexism” upsets me is because it’s the most glaring example of how trans rights activists piggy-back on the struggles of historically marginalized groups in order to boost their own agenda. In this case, that group is black women.